LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 3

Eek! This is a day late! So sorry! This past weekend was not only ridiculously humid, but also very busy. I'll go into that in a sec. First things first...these cute l-pops. They are bright and summery and totally cute. Sometimes it boggles my mind how creative people are. I wish I knew how to make lollipops like this. I need to go through my cookbooks to see if there's a recipe or something.

Okay...speaking of cookbooks...holy mama! I HAVE TOO MANY COOKBOOKS. I know I have a bit of an unnatural obsession with them but it really became clear this weekend how crazy my obsession is. So, as I mentioned, this weekend was very humid. I recently moved back to this state and have all of my "stuff" in a 23-foot storage unit--okay...two 23-foot storage units. I have been worried about leaving certain items in storage all summer long knowing that it is awfully sticky here. I was particularly concerned about my photos. My mother and I went to get them out and discovered that a lot of boxes looked like they were caving in and sort of "soggy". The majority of these boxes were filled with books, books, and many, many more books. I opened a few and saw that some (my yearbooks!) were getting soggy! So, in panic mode, I packed up 3 carloads of heavy book boxes back home. I was sweating my patootie off! I loved it! Not. Anyway, I now have about 30 book boxes sitting in my living room. Cookbooks, novels, textbooks, yearbooks, magazines...sheesh! I would have to read for every second of the rest of my life and I still wouldn't make it through them all. So, why, why, why do I keep them? I have a sickness...a disease...it is so bad that yesterday I told a friend at work about the book fiasco and mentioned that I have a collection of cookbooks that I rescued and she said, "Oh! I have some set aside for donation. I'll bring them to you." Instead of declining them I said "YES!" All night I kept wondering which ones she had...I obviously didn't need them, but I was THRILLED to get them today. One was the reproduction edition of the Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book originally published in 1950. Little did she know that I collect vintage Betty Crocker cookbooks and have been wanting this one! SCORE! I know I didn't need it, but I wanted it!! I'm sick!

Just for fun, here are some pictures of my Betty Crocker cookbooks. They are so cute! The photos inside the books are so old fashioned and poor quality, but I love that about them. The cute red & white one in the top right is from my friend. Thanks Ann!

The one below is my favorite. The Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, Copyright 1963, First Edition, spiral bound.

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 2

Cute little lollipops all in a row. I love the bright, refreshing colors! These look like Dum Dum Pops to me...not sure of the flavors. But, yum! I love Dum Dums, especially when you get the "Mystery Flavor". I read that the Mystery Flavor is the resulting combined flavor when the production line switches from one flavor to another. For more info about Dum Dums (I know you are all interested) go to their site. You can take a DDP trivia quiz for fun! http://www.dumdumpops.com/DDPGames/trivia.php

Kim's Baby Shower

This evening I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from my friend Kim's baby shower. I wanted to create something wonderful for her since the poor girl had spent a good portion of her pregnancy on bedrest (she was given permission by her doctor to attend her own shower--phew!). We knew she was having a baby girl so I wanted to give her a shower that was sweet and girly. The white cake was in the shape of a onesie that I carved out of the Wilton T-Shirt cake pan. I frosted it with buttercream frosting and free-handed the outline of the onesie in purple, then added a few flowers. As you can see, I'm not really skilled with the icing tips yet...maybe someday.

I had enough cake batter left over to make cupcakes too. I just played around with the decorating...just winging it as I went.

I also made some sugar cookies in the shapes of duckies, baby buggies, bottles and baby feet. I decorated these using a powdered sugar glaze because it sets up well. I found some tiny Wilton baby cookie cutters and made little cookies to adorn the cupcakes with. Pinks and purples and all the super girly stuff that Kim loves so much ;0) Little Peyton Julia came into the world a tad early, not too long after this shower!

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 1

Thanks so much to my first few followers...you're what we call "early adopters" in the marketing world. Really, you're just cool friends! Those who know me well know that I am not much of a phone talker. This blog lets me to "talk" to my friends in a way that not many other outlets do. Facebook is cool for quick hellos and comments, I still don't get the Twitter thing and texting hurts my thumbs!

I have a lot of plans for the blog...I hope I will be able to stick to them. I'll be posting pictures of family, talking about my hobbies, posting recipes I've made and some I'd like to make, discussing movies and music, reminiscing about old times, good times, bad times, crazy times. Comments are always welcome! And of course, I'll always be recruiting more followers.

For this second post, I am introducing the LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK. I love food, especially anything sweet. I love food photography, especially of anything sweet. I think lollipops are adorable--so they've become my theme. Every week I'll pick a new l-pop.

This is a RAINBOW Lollipop in the popular and super cute layered swirl pattern. This could be my favorite type...I say that now and it's only week 1! We'll see...

Sweet dreams everyone!
Stephanie

First Lollipop Jubilee Post

On Friday, May 7th, 2010 at about 6:15 pm on my mother's birthday, she told me that she wished she had a blog to share her scrapbooking projects with her Cricut chat friends. Neither one of us knew anything about how to put a blog together, so as a birthday gift (and Mother's Day gift) to my mommy, I've spent most of the past 52 hrs* learning how to create cute blog sites for each of us. By Googling and searching and checking out other cute blogs I came across some AWESOME sites such as Shabby Blogs, The Cutest Blog on the Block and LeeLou Blogs. I was able to pull elements from each of these sites to "create" blogs that represent both of our personalities and styles. FOR FREE!!!

{added May 12, 2010} Just realized that both of the designs that my mom and I chose for our blogs were designed by Michelle Underwood. Just wanted to give her a proper shout-out. She's really talented! We obviously love her stuff!

*Note: Several hours were dedicated solely on deciding what our blog names should be. We both love the word Jubilee and so we both wanted to use it! It think it is great because it ties us together, just as scrapbooking, collecting (a.k.a. hoarding) has done in the past. ;o) Love you Mom! Her blog name is Jubilee Bliss and mine is Lollipop Jubilee. Check her's out too!

So, after hours of "research and development" I am happy to say that we both have published our first posts. So what if we are the only ones reading them?! We're still figuring this whole thing out! I think it will be a fun outlet to share and be creative. Followers will come later...hopefully!!!

Stephanie (still need to find out how to get a cute signature)